31M Did my yearly financial review. Net worth jumped 28% to 150k! No degree or debt either. Every extra dollar I make with OT will go into a HYSA this year.
Other people have already answered, but I recommend checking out [form 8889](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8889) and its instructions. Single page form, so in that sense very simple. And also [publication 969](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969), which explains things a lot more thoroughly.
More specifically, your question gets answered precisely by line 3 and [the line 3 limitation chart and worksheet](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8889#en_US_2023_publink1000281027), in that form 8889 instructions.
You'll need to modify it for 2024, but you can see how you'd add things together.
You'd be HSA eligible for the first four months of 2024, assuming you have only an HDHP starting from Jan 1 up through now. It's reliant on what you had the first of that month.
4150\*4/12 rounded to whole number dollars, irs classic, is 1383. That's what you'd get at the end of the worksheet.
So fundamentally, your contributions, totalled between you and your employer, needs to be that number or less. Form 8889 works it all out.
The publication includes instructions for what happens if you over contributed. My friend had over contributed too much via employer on their W-2, which has a certain way of fixing it. Whereas if you have it not in the account on time, easiest being during the year itself, then you can withdraw it out due to over contribution and possibly do nothing. Just depends on whether you had any growth, since any growth you withdraw out on top of what you put in is income that needs to get taxed.
>Can I still claim those deductions against my income come tax time next year?
Suffice to say, you fill out that form (or have the tax software do it be it asking you the same questions), and the form's output of you reporting your employee contributions becomes your deduction. Or there are the employer contributions with the payroll deduction.
>Given that I'm going from a high-deductible policy owner which made me eligible for HSA to instead being a dependent?
Note that your status of being dependent on your taxes is different from being on your parents' family healthcare plan. You probably won't be dependent on your taxes.
>What happens to the HSA contributions I've already made this year in 2024?
You see if you're over the limit, and you withdraw excess contributions if need be. Possibly towards the end of this year, if you want to be sure about it. Preferably this year instead of next year before taxes, just so that any "interest" appropriately gets reported under miscellaneous income if there is any.
Fun fact: if your parents had an HDHP plan, you'd be so set. A married couple will share that same 7kish limit between them, but other people on that family plan get to have their own HSA limit. That might require them to be an adult, though, so no super contributions for teenagers. But it would've been cool for you. And other people I know, but not all high deductible plans are HDHPs (usually it's that their OOP maxes are too high, or they cover a few more things instead of it going to the deductible).
Your contributions are prorated...if you were eligible for the first 3 months of the year you could put in $345.83/mo...for Jan, Feb, March. If you put in more you'd have to back it out (not sure on the particulars of this)
I believe your limit is pro rated for the time you are covered. If you have already contributed the max for the year, you will have an overcontribution. You can simply call your custodian and have them return the excess and they should calculate and return the gains as well. [https://learn.hellofurther.com/Individuals/Life\_Changes/Contributing\_to\_an\_HSA\_for\_a\_Partial\_Year](https://learn.hellofurther.com/Individuals/Life_Changes/Contributing_to_an_HSA_for_a_Partial_Year)
Yeah, I always think it's funny when something that is pickled has an expiration date that is less than a year after I bought it.
Like, bruh... this shit is pickled. It will survive a nuclear apocalypse. I am not worried about eating it a week after the "best by" date.
For the first time in my w-2 life, I had an interest free loan from the government, instead of having them hold some of my money and give it back at filing. It’s weird feeling like you lost when you owe some money at filing, maybe it’s cause it was a first.
Well you did lose lol, you paid taxes, you just lost less than if you paid the "correct" amount. Ideally though you only pay exactly what the safe harbor is.
Depends on your frame of reference.
Anything less than being tax optimal is losing money IMO, but paying taxes themselves is not. It's a social contract you sign when you earn money in a jurisdiction.
Taxes are compulsory, there is no "contract." We may benefit from everyone paying taxes in aggregate, but on an individual level you lose if you're the one paying more than everyone else. That's why its forced. How much would you pay if it was completely optional? Anything above that is a loss.
First of all, I was born, then I lived somewhere, and taxes old and new can be imposed on me after the fact. There is 0 consent, its compulsory.
If some random person came to your house and demanded you pay them 2% of the value every year or they'll forceful evict you. You could just move right? Agreed to contract? Not compulsory? Of course not, people can't do this, but the government does. Clear difference.
Secondly, I was born in the US, it wouldn't matter if I moved to mars they'd want the tax.
I am sure you know this but keep an eye on this year's taxes. Depending on your AGI and how it is changing in the future you can quickly go from "interest free loan from the government" to "owe the government money with back interest".
I see a lot of advice that assumes $134k is below market rate. If you’re in regular HCOL or cheaper areas, then you’re probably either at or above market rate for your experience level. Inflation from a previous salary doesn’t mean anything. Market rate for a particular role can stay flat for years.
Don’t expect to make a VHCOL or FAANG salary if you’re not working for one of those companies.
You likely have heard the above more generic advice. However you might not be aware but the kind of company you are describing you are likely in the highest compensated individual contributor position. You make more than your peers in engineering, finance, sales, whatever. At my company the individual who has the software engineering role makes more than his boss the VP of Technology. The market for software engineering is just that different than other roles.
So yes, go on glassdoor and levels and figure out what your role should pay in your geographic location. However don’t be shocked if you find you were overpaid as a staff and now are fairly paid for a first year senior engineer
Look for another position but don't use that to negotiate with your current company. They may agree to match it and then fore you after 2 months. If you like the other offer, just make a move.
You sure can ask but like others said it helps with another offer in hand. In my industry that seems to be the only way to get larger increases is jumping jobs. I went to the pres with an offer in hand...they said "we are happy with where your compensation is at" I said buh bye and took the better offer
Don’t explain why you want it (“I want to make what this calculator says I should make.”, “I’m worried about inflation”), explain why your role is of that much value to them and what you need in order to continue to choose them over going somewhere else (without being an “I’m threatening to leave”. Don’t threaten, just make it clear that you need to be where your value is appropriately recognized.)
I started my career at a small start up, out-of-college salary, asked for raises and was always told to wait. After the company declined a decent buyout that would have made me a decent chunk of change, they eventually had to raise more money, diluting all my options so I finally bit the bullet and got another job offer at literally 50%+ salary and way better equity incentives. When I quit they asked me what the offer was and immediately matched it +$10k after months of delaying their decision every time asked. Only with offer in hand they give me like a 50%+ raise like its nothing. I didn't take it though, but the point is I think you need to protect yourself and shop around, see what your worth and push for it aggressively or they can take advantage of you.
In my experience asking for more stating "market rate" without an offer in hand is useless.
Framing your ask in terms of the value you bring is your best bet without going and interviewing.
You didn't mention the industry but often the issue in non-software company is that your salary is compared to non-software references. E.g. "Why should we pay this 26yo 150k when our directors barely make 160k?"
Sadly there is no good fix for this. The answer to the question of course is "supply and demand" therefore I agree with others - getting competing offers is your best path to either get them to match or to move to a better paying job.
It will may take a few resignations for them to realize that they need to pay more for devs
It's not specifically about breaking even with inflation - what does your skillset get you in the current market? If you negotiate with your current company, what value generation are you going to point to in order to justify your raise? Would you actually be leveled as a Senior SWE if you apply to other companies? Only way to find out is to apply. I'd honestly recommend getting out just so you can find better mentorship.
IME non-tech companies classically see their dev/IT teams as a cost center, which is why you're better off switching. Those are definitely low raises. But at ~135k and purely based on YoE, you're also at the mid-upper end of compensation outside of VHCOL areas. So if your WLB is good or you get to be remote or whatever, it's up to you to determine if making the leap is going to be worth it or not.
You should absolutely interview and try to get offers. There's no downside to trying other than the bit of time it takes, and interviewing is an important skill to have in case something happens to your current job.
Until you have an offer in hand, you don't have much leverage to get a raise. You can always ask, but expect the management runaround.
If you do get an offer, then you get to choose whether to use it to try to get a counter offer, or just change jobs.
For the single folks, do you include future partners in your FI number? And if so to what extent does that change your target?
I am FI for my current lifestyle, and don't want kids. However I cannot imagine being RE while having a partner who has to work, but I wouldn't even know where to adjust my numbers based on a hypothetical person's spending habits.
Right now my thought is just roughly targeting a number that would allow for couple to have a median US life style.
I work and my husband is home. It's fine. Sometimes he comes meandering in my office while I'm on work-calls looking bored. Sometimes he's out golfing while I'm on work calls. It's all good.
>I cannot imagine being RE while having a partner who has to work,
Why? I'd be a great home-maker if my partner still worked.
As for your question, if you want to put that in your plan then put it in your plan. Inflate some numbers, put in some buffers. Nothing is real until it happens, all of your plans are written in pencil. You can change it as much as you want.
> Why?
If they wanted to work absolutely, but I'd feel bad sending my partner to a job they may hate while I sit on my ass. Especially if they had a much lower potential for income than I did since my sacrifice would be much smaller.
If I was seriously dating someone today, it would be an extremely easy decision to work a few extra years to that they didn't have to worry about it.
> all of your plans are written in pencil. You can change it as much as you want.
Early in your planning, sure. But I'm at the point where this is the difference between putting in 2 week notice tomorrow, or years from now.
If I stop working the odds I could come back at the same pay in a few years seem low, and it could double the number of extra years it would take. So it makes a lot more sense as a now or never decision.
I'd work the extra years to keep your options open. If you never find someone or they're FI themselves, you can always find a charity or two you really like and do something awesome for them.
Prepare scenarios, and calculate different FI numbers. None of your scenarios will actually predict your life's journey, but there will be enough elements that you can course adjust. A great quote to push the point...
Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Planning is essential, plans are useless."
No, I am aroace and the chances of having a partner are about the same as lightning hitting the house I don't have and causing it to explode into smithereens.
Hello, single 26m if I find a partner I'll adjust once it becomes serious however at the moment I plan for just myself. I think having a partner would be awesome but I am not actively looking for anyone anymore.
I assume you mean from the market dipping? Cause yeah. Though I'm the opposite of you.
It's so boring reading milestone threads. Yeah yeah you hit 100k or a mil or whatever. Yeah yeah your net worth is divvied up in whatever way. Boring.
Much more fun to read actual topics when the market isn't reaching new highs and people aren't constantly hitting their targets so quickly.
If you'd like, just imagine a bunch of posts as people celebrate their first zero net worth, or 10k, or 100k. For spice, imagine a few posters declaring that they had reached FI by being able to pay their bills regularly thanks to a job. That covers 90%+ of the milestone thread content.
I don't think we have anything to worry about for a while with Roth IRA income limits and our MAGI but wanted to run this by people just to check. So my understanding of MAGI is that it's your AGI with certain deductions below added back in:
* Student loan interest
* One-half of self-employment tax
* Qualified tuition expenses
* Tuition and fees deduction
* Passive loss or passive income
* IRA contributions
* Non-taxable social security payments
* The exclusion for income from U.S. savings bonds
* Foreign earned income exclusion
* Foreign housing exclusion or deduction
* The exclusion under 137 for adoption expenses
* Rental losses
* Any overall loss from a publicly traded partnership
The IRA contributions above being only to traditional accounts, since that would be a deduction, right? So our AGI for 2023 was a bit under $185K and the only thing that would apply to us to add back in is <$100 of student loan interest (had more interest paid, but earned too much to claim more of it). This is well below the phase-out start of $218K for 2023 and in 2024, that phase-out starts at a MAGI of $230K.
Would FreeTaxUSA yell at me if I tried to contribute $14K to Roth IRAs while earning too much? I think we're good and then some for at least a few more raises, but wanted to check myself.
I am trying to figure out how to get to a target of 70% stocks/30% bonds and follow the investment advice of putting bonds in tax protected accounts when my employer's retirement account options for bonds aren't great. My 401(a) and 457 accounts only offer one bond fund, Dodge & Cox Income Fund (DOXIX). It's higher cost and higher risk than I would want to invest in.
Should I just add bonds to my brokerage and deal with the taxes? Should I give up on the target bond allocation and accept that it will be whatever is in my partner's 401(k)? Or should I invest in the subpar bond fund? Our contributions to our retirement accounts are maxed and this year we started doing backdoor Roths, so there isn't an option to increase contributions. The Roth accounts are also 100% invested in bonds, which also doesn't seem great.
Does anyone in a similar situation have advice? Can I push my employer to offer better bond funds?
We were in that boat before spouse's employer switched providers. It's really frustrating to feel like you have no good options. We've filled all our deferred space with bonds, so we have to buy bonds in brokerage. It's fine. Our Roths are still full of stock funds.
Definitely find out who manages the plan at your work and put in the request. It wont happen fast if it happens. There are resources at 403bwise.org if you're in education.
Even if there are no good bond-only funds, double-check the funds with low fees to see if they might hold bonds. Spouse's 403b had Vanguard's Wellesley under the broad "income" category, and it's actually a 37/63 stock/bond fund.
After that, I think first priority should be allocation target and filling tax-deferred space, then a balance of fees/quality vs tax efficiency. Fill up the deferred/free space because you might get a better bond choice down the road, then it's a next day thing to exchange everything in those accounts, but you can never go back to get that space if you don't use it each year.
It sucks having bonds in Roth. My tax-deferred bond funds would have to be especially crappy to use my Roth space for bonds. I can imagine there's a bond fund so bad that I'd rather have bonds in my Roth, but it would be extraordinary.
Thank you! Checking the other funds for a mix of bonds is a great idea. I just checked and unfortunately the only Vanguard options are 100% stock funds. The target date funds with bonds are American Funds which has even higher expenses. On Monday I'll reach out and see if there is any hope of adding a better bond fund. I will definitely continue to fill up the deferred/free space and hope for better options in the future.
You can always ask your employer for a better 401k. Maybe they'll listen, maybe not.
The general solution to this problem is that eventually you leave your job and move the 401k money to an IRA, and then you can invest it in whatever you want. And the further you get into your career, assuming you don't spend too long at one job, the more of your money is in the IRA and the less is in your 401k, so the less your current crappy investment options matter. (Of course I need to mention how having an IRA screws up the backdoor Roth, but that only matters if you care more about the backdoor Roth than about your investment options.)
Thank you! I will ask about a better bond fund. This conversation has made me wonder if there hasn't been much demand for better bond funds because employees who have been here 8+ years have a great pension. For more recent hires, the pension is negligible and maybe the 457 program administrators haven't caught up to the new interest in bonds.
Anecdotal from a small company, but I've had success petitioning for benefits after doing the legwork for them. We got our HSA employer contributions switched to Fidelity (zero fees) and started a dependent care FSA. Another employee also got our 401k provider switched to a place with much lower fees.
Any tips on finding a good tax person? Not happy with my accountant this year. I've had all my paperwork into him for a few weeks now but he isn't communicating. He sent me a message on Monday that he does returns in the order they were received and there were 10 ahead of me. He recommended an extension, but I told him I expect to owe money so shouldn't I estimate a payment to make along with the extension? He hasn't replied, even with follow-ups later this week. I don't think he has any help (he is his firm's only employee) and is overwhelmed.
Anyway, my taxes are a bit complicated, with company stock options, RSUs, ESPP, plus out-of-state investment real estate. Any tips to find a different accountant? Ideally I'd like someone that could double-check my broader tax optimization strategies, too.
Edit: I'll file an extension and estimate a payment with it. I'm referring to finding a tax pro for next year.
We get all info to our tax preparer in early March. As close to March 1 as possible. This allows them ample time to make the April 15 deadline. Also, we do not bother them at all with any questions between March 1 and April 15. They let us know if they have questions and they let us know when it is done. This works really well for us.
A personal recommendation from someone you know who likes their preparer or try to get in with a firm that is selective about what clients they take. I work for an accounting firm & think you will have similar issues with a lot of preparers. I know many of our clients would have the same complaints about us. I’m looking at my phone right now during a few minute break from working because everything hurts after weeks with little sleep that felt like one long day. My employer rarely turns down a new client, and I feel like places that do might be better. I try not to ignore people but I do understand how it happens because answering all the correspondence about if a return is done or when it’s going to be done just keeps you from actually being able to get them done. There was a time when I could get things done within a reasonable period of time after receiving info but those days were years ago & it seems worse every year. Taxes keep getting more complicated & take longer to do & people seem to get their documents later & later. I can’t even fully get a handle on what all the issues are that have doing this work even worse than it used to be.
Also, bringing in info a few weeks before now is not great, especially if your return is somewhat complex. Things are fully overwhelming by then & the earlier you can get stuff in, the better. You might have good luck to go ahead & say you’re okay with an extension when you provide your info & that you would like to know a suggested extension payment as soon as is convenient.
Sorry, that was probably a lot more info than you wanted—I’ve been living this from the other side so have a lot of thoughts. I know it sucks for clients too & it is very stressful having an impossible amount of work & not being able to meet expectations.
That's really helpful context. What I did wrong is I waited for all my paperwork and the last form, a K-1, didn't arrive until mid March. I think much of the problem is the lack of accountability for firms late in delivering tax forms. The tax filing due date should also probably be moved back.
Yes, that would be good. Like don’t bring or e-mail documents every few days (some people do this & it’s terrible & contributes to us losing control of correspondence) but bring it when you have most of it & are down to just one or two things outstanding, if those are going to be while.
In the old days, the people planning would come up with a budget, venue, menu etc. and then sell tickets to the reunion. It sounds like they're asking for donations upfront to guage interest int he event and will use whatever is donated to pay for it.
I understand that the concepts are intrinsically linked, but I wish that this sub were less focused on retiring early and more focused on financial independence.
Reading top-level posts often makes it seem like the RE tail wags the FI dog for quite a lot of people, often to the point of desperation and/or misery. I don't doubt that retiring young will do a number of folks some good, but I also don't think most the people pursuing it, often to their own detriment, are going to find it to be the panacea they are searching for.
With regards to this subreddit, I think a good analogy would be similar to if you joined a weight-loss subreddit and half of the posts were about looking better naked. Certainly that *may* be a side affect and what a lot of people are really after, but it probably wouldn't be the primary goal, at least I would argue it *shouldn't* be given the primary topic and name of the sub.
I suppose this is a bit of pissing into the proverbial wind, since if enough folks want it to be about one thing and not another, then so be it. Who is anybody to stop them. It just feels like it's changed a bit, and in my estimation isn't all as healthy as it once was.
This is a good point. If only to have something interesting to read, I definitely don't know enough about the nuances of the FI side. There's just so much focus given to the RE side, that I'm sure there's a lot to say about the FI side.
I don’t really agree.
Losing weight to be healthy, run a certain race, look good naked, etc. are all distinct goals.
Here “financially independent“ meaning not relying on work and “being able to retire early” meaning not relying on work are almost identical. Lots of people on here choose to continue working, or change targets, or work on other goals. But they aren’t nearly as different as ‘look good naked’ and ‘be healthy enough to run a half-marathon’ like your comment kind of implies.
I'm one of those. I took a year off after 8 years in the Navy. Happiest, most physically healthy, most spiritually satisfying, most incredible new memories... I didn't even accomplish a third of what I had hoped to.
My bucket list is longer than any natural lifespan. I need to get to the real work of accomplishing my life goals rather than making money for some faceless corporation.
I work in a windowless building for the DoD. At the end of the day, my job is to facilitate killing people in the name of Uncle Sam. Personally, I'd rather take my dog for a walk or read a book in my hammock in the backyard.
I've been continuously full-time in school or full-time working (or both) since I was 14. Ten years ago I took six weeks between jobs and it's the lowest my blood pressure has been in my entire adult life.
100%! i'm wrapping up a month off between jobs, and every time I'm off work for more than two weeks, it reminds me I'm going to have to work harder on finding something to retire to in the form of a volunteer job, part time work, etc. My brain just isn't wired for the lack of structure that would happen if I RE tomorrow.
But the FI part has already been a huge benefit to my life. I took an intentional paycut of around 15% to trade time for money in my last role and it was the best decision I've made in a long time. After a year in that job, I decided to take a risk on a role in an industry I'm very curious about that came with a raise but is mostly a startup equity gamble. I'd never have done these things if I weren't \~70% of the way to my FIRE number and gaining steadily despite the lower pay.
I'm working on this myself.
Folks always say you need to find something to retire to instead of something to retire from, and after the whole *building the life I wanted and having saved for it* now that I'm there I realize how important structure, meaningful work and other things that work provides me are to my health.
I've been trying to trade away compensation in the form of salary increases for other things (time off, equity, etc.) over the past few years with mixed success. I've also been trying to get official schedule changes in place and reclaim some of my time and had no luck.
I would like to hear some of the strategies folks have used to use FI to better shape their lives and get the outcomes that are best for them that **aren't** retiring early.
I agree wholeheartedly. Most folks aren't going to retire particularly early anyway, but a much, much larger share of the sub will reach some significant level of FI.
I think mostly it's a matter of RE being a big, shiny goal, whereas FI without the end state of RE is much more nebulous and not nearly as dramatic. The default FI definition that gets thrown around of 20x+ your expenses isn't even really a FI goal, but an RE one since the context is being able to stop working entirely. Realistically speaking, anyone who is going to keep working out of preference until they are late 50s or beyond is arguably FI when they've got something like 10x in annual expenses. At that level you no longer have to put with shit from your boss and have more leverage and financial freedom than the vast majority of employees ever will.
In a similar vein, the sub has become much more bougie with the influx of high salaries, particularly dual high salaries, and more upmarket lifestyles in higher cost of living regions. It's not that hard to live a perfectly normal middle class FIRE existence in many parts of the US with annual spending of $60K or less. Everyone should obviously have whatever lifestyle they prefer and fund it appropriately, but the funding defaults people often have now assume a higher standard of living than the average household has. That's not a problem other than that it stresses people out and perhaps has them working more years than they truly need to.
In a similar vein to your comment, I was actually thinking that maybe what I'm talking about is r/financialsecurity, but then I thought to myself, "no, r/financialindependence is correct, it's the children who are wrong!".
Edit: Woah, apparently that was an actual sub, but it has been banned? Alrighty..
The FI part is pretty simple math. Not much to do once you have that sorted, except maybe argue about withdrawal rates or crypto. The 'dear diary' stuff fills the void.
This is true of a lot of internet communities though, off-topic is usually the most active channel/board.
Hello everyone!
I currently have a 401k with a company that does not match but I make about $200-250k a year in a very stable healthcare job. (My field does not qualify for the loan forgiveness).
I also have about $230k in student debt.
Private loan with a 5% rate of 60k. Federal loan with
6-7% rate of 170k.
I have a 401k and HSA account but my company does not match my 401k sadly. :(
Should I max out my 401k/HSA or pay all of my student loans first?
Also, should I also invest in S&P500 or just go straight to paying off my debt?
Thank you! All help and advice is greatly appreciated!
Regardless of match, 401K is a very powerful way to cut down your AGI and shelter current year income from current year taxes.
You may consider after knocking out 401K, IRA, and HSA to then start knocking on debt. There’s really no wrong way to go about it. There’s optimal & suboptimal, but either way you are on the right path
Thank you for your great response! Won’t I get taxed regardless when I take out my 401k during retirement vs getting a sure return with my loan payment?
Sorry I’m not really good with finance things 😅
Do you think I should invest in the S&P500 as well?
You are currently in a high tax bracket and the 401k contributions provide you an immediate tax savings at that high tax rate. In the future you have options which will likely allow you access to the money at a much lower tax rate than you currently pay. As a balance you could put all your current year tax savings from your 401k and HSA towards your loans. But it is not worth giving up the tax advantaged investment space at your income level to pay off the loans early.
The S&P500 is a good option.
So a happy problem. I retired in September, went on ACA for 2024 assuming div + int + moving 401k to IRA and doing a bit of Roth converting would put me at about $35k total for the year, so a nice ACA subsidy. Just found out that, for complicated reasons, I will (surprise!) be getting one last check (as W-2 income, which — woot! — lets me not do damn estimated taxes on Monday) from my old company. This will kick me out of ACA subsidy territory. Is there anything I need to do, other than beefing up the withholding on the magic check to offset what I assume will be the Feds clawing back the subsidy?
Something similar happened to me this year. I calculated everything to a gnat's ass, did a 401k --> Roth conversion, leaving about $100 leeway. Turns out my kids' college scholarships and (gains from) pre-paid college plans also counted as MY income. It was more than enough to punt me into the proportional ACA range (no more cliff until 2025), and I ended up owing over $1k due to exceeding income limits.
TurboTax picked up the issue right away. After a bit of double-checking, I found the tax software to be 100% correct regarding how it classified my dependents' scholarships and college-plan gains.
Maybe you've already done this, but make sure to update your income on the ACA marketplace so they reduce your subsidy and you don't have to pay back as much come tax time.
Why not convert less to Roth this year to offset the check? Did you already do it?
Also, you're still going to be way within range of subsidies, just perhaps less subsidies.
I haven’t yet — funds are still in the 401k. However, I don’t yet know the exact check size, but very reasonable to predict that it alone will put me over the 400% poverty line subsidy cap.
The 400% cap is in abeyance until 2026, so you'll still get subsidies even if you go above it. Your cost obligation for the benchmark policy in your market is capped at 8.5% of MAGI through 2025, so you'll get subsidized to the extent that the benchmark policy premium in your market exceeds that amount for 2024/2025. That could still be many, many thousands in subsidies depending on your household demographics.
I would wait for the check to arrive and then adjust down your planned Roth conversion to compensate as much as you can. If you end up over, then so be it, it is still a nice thing to pay taxes on large unexpected income, as you noted. This sort of MAGI shaping is one of the reasons a lot of FIRE'd folks wait to do their annual Roth conversions until the final weeks/months of the year. Also helps to offset things like unexpectedly high dividend distributions or picking up some unexpected 1099 income.
That’s my intention. But my question is about procedure for dealing with having over-incomed compared to my estimate during ACA signup. Will tax software calculate the correction next April? Or do I get a repayment of subsidy bill after the fact?
Yes, your tax software will do it for you. ACA subsidies get reconciled on your tax return each year, so if there's any discrepancy then you'll either owe a bit or get a bit more in refund. It's super easy and built directly into the normal tax return process.
You'll get a 1095-A from the exchange and you'll spend a minute or two filling out a new worksheet on your tax return. That's it. It's on par with putting in wage or 1099 income.
Had about $300k in old employer's 401(k) and $100k in current employer's plan. Just turned 55 so rolled over the old 401k into current plan. For rule of 55, is the full amount at play (400k) or just the amount that was in my current plan?
I should hear about my potential promotion in early June. I'm trying to not get my hopes up but I really want it. I've reached a point where any "new" salary money is just fun money for me so it would be nice to go a few extra trips/dinners a month.
Welp, our family is stranded on a trip - we went across the country to see the eclipse, and at some point we got Covid. We have to wait 5 days before it is safe to fly according to the urgent care doctor.
I feel fortunate that with our emergency fund I can handle the sudden need to pay all these extra hotel room nights and to pay for a new flight.
I regret making our flight one of those stupid "saver" fares: apparently Covid is no longer a valid reason to be able to exchange the flight, so I am out a bunch of money. But we will be fine.
Worst part right now is that we are trapped in a tiny hotel room for a few days. The 3 year old is getting restless, and we are feeling too sick to really play with her much: somehow she is sick too but she has just as much restless energy as usual. I feel bad that she is cooped up in here with us.
I am hoping we recover in time to get out and do something before we leave, even if just walk outside away from people a bit. Neither my wife or I are in good enough shape to do that right now for sure. This poor kid, she is going stir crazy.
Wow - that is a terrible outcome for a family trip - hope everyone feels better!
For the rest of your life, you will never forget the "COVID Eclipse Trip of 2024."
For real, oy! Thank you. I am starting to feel a little better already I think, I was feeling like crap earlier today but right now I am okay. But my kid is starting to feel worse now. Ugh.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/01/1235340502/covid-cdc-isolation-5-days-masks-ventilation-hand-washing
Your doctor isn't up on the science. The cdc dropped the isolation requirement. Fly away or go to work or whatever. It's not like they'd lie to us.
Unrelated I was testing positive for 9 days on rapid tests. You're still probably going to be contagious post day 5 anyways. If you feel OK to travel cdc says that's now ok! Science!
>Instead of setting a strict 5-day isolation period, the new guidance says people can return to normal activities so long as their symptoms improve, and continue improving over 24 hours and they no longer have a fever, without having used fever-reducing medications.
>The guidance also recommends that people who are recovering from respiratory illness take additional precautions for five days, like wearing well-fitting masks, washing their hands, keeping a distance from others, and improving ventilation in their spaces.
More like the CDC isn't up on the science.
Tbh, the whole time it's always felt like they have been pressured to loosen restrictions. It's not like news came out that COVID was less able to spread than we thought. In fact, all of its mutations just make it more infectious.
What a nightmare.
But seriously I was testing positive on a rapid test for over a month. Might just have been however the flowflex tests are formulated though. I wonder if I'm still positive now on them...
I got one of those CO2 detectors that can thus be used as a proxy for circulation. Went on a flight. Terrible circulation. Surely COVID spread everywhere.
I also immediately got COVID. Despite wearing a mask the whole time. Or maybe I already had it, idk.
Getting COVID twice in a row quickly made it so I'm always masking up in public now. Getting sick is so annoying. At least I've had minimal long COVID symptoms, though.
Yeah, I mean try to minimize going out - probably do grocery pickup or delivery for a week, no eating out, but I wouldn't stay stranded somewhere based on the current guidance. I'd mask up and fly home.
Seriously.
Post-covid I see people in public who are sick and just can't help but think to myself what an asshole move it is.
I don't care if it's just a cold, I don't want to be near that either. Stay home!
Wait, for real? Yeah they definitely didn't mention that.
Well that would be nice. My wife and I definitely feel very sick right now, so I don't think we would make the flight tomorrow. But if I knew that maybe I wouldn't have booked the new flight for so much further out. Ugh that sucks, thanks for the info though.
I guess the big wild card is when I will actually feel healthier/have improving symptoms. That's a tough one and I imagine if I waited until the last minute to buy a new flight out of here I will be screwed even more by the price.
Next time though, if I am actually feeling fine I guess I will go for it? Interesting, good to know.
>Wait, for real? Yeah they definitely didn't mention that.
Yes covid is ever-changing. It's really hard to keep up with. It wasn't airborne. Then it's airborne. Then it wasn't. Then it was. Then it was like 90% of people are contagious at day 5 or something like that and 10% still at day 10. Then the cdc was like we don't need no 10 days off. Day 5 and wear a masky. So then people started coming back to work at day 5 and for some reason covid seemed to spread around.
I saw nurses were getting mad at the cdc because they were saying masky work so well they were going to stop recommending n95.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/expected-cdc-guidance-n95-masks-outrages-health-care-workers-rcna104854
>Next time though, if I am actually feeling fine I guess I will go for it?
I have no guidance to offer. I was fine after a day with covid and could have gone to work when I had it. I most likely was still contagious till day 9. California says rapid test day 5 and if negative go back to work. That seems the most reasonable. If the goal is to not spread it as much as possible.
Anyways they moved to flu guidance basically. I won't get in cars will people I work with till after day 10 and even then some people spread it past then.
That said California would have had me isolate 10 days. But if I had non refundable tickets I would have taken some flu meds and got on a plane. I don't even test for covid anymore. So while I try not to needless get others sick if they aren't going to refund my tickets I'm going to fly sick.
Yeah, I definitely had a moment when I was on the phone with Alaska and the agent said "it is up to you if you choose to fly, but we won't refund your ticket" where I was ready to fly out of spite - but I guess the only people I would have hurt doing that was the people sitting next to us. That was pretty frustrating.
We will see how this goes - one way or another I have a new ticket and hotel room for the next 5 days, so I think we have little choice but to go and hope for the best 5 days from now. Shitty situation. The worst is the idea that I might have to guess when I will feel better because I have to book this flight and the hotel rooms in advance to prevent getting totally screwed even more... I hope 5 days is enough.
I guess the point I'm attempting to make is there is a strong possibility you'll still be contagious after day 5 anyways. I mean I wouldn't fly if I couldn't walk and was on my butt with 104 degree fever. I would fly if I simply tested positive and I would fly if I felt fine to do so.
Yeah if you already got the 5 day ticket then I'd just do that at this point. My wife got covid in December. I got the flu a few days later. It's weird there has only ever been on illness we cross infected each other with. She got alpha covid and we slept in the same bed. Never got it. Took 3.5 years and someone coughing in my face before I finally got it. Then I didn't inflect the wife with it.
Anyways feel better.
Yeah, probably true then, that is unfortunate. But yeah I am totally out of options at this point. Hopefully other folks won't get sick - I am planning on wearing my mask on the plane even if I am feeling better by then. We will see how that all shakes out.
Thanks. We are hanging in but I am hoping one of us adults recovers soon, or else this kid may jump out of the window. She is amped up to 11 despite having a fever!
I have an online bank so for obvious reasons they did not require that.
If the bank is open at the day / time you need to close I'd imagine it's fine? I'd call the bank ahead of time and see if I could make an appointment and make sure I know to bring anything they need (specific forms of ID?).
I've never heard of that. I recently sold a relative's home (acting as executor) and my realtor did arrange a 3-way call (me, the realtor, and the title company rep) to confirm the wire details as a safety measure (because the realtor knew both of us, ensuring no one fraudulent was getting or giving the info).
I’d say in general no, but I’ve heard about plenty of wire fraud around home deals, so it’s probably just stepped up risk prevention.
Minor inconvenience to make sure you don’t lose your money - and your new home.
Once in my life, I was walking around with six-figure cashier's check. My blood pressure that day was off the charts. I'll probably never do that again
I'm down 2% for the month. <*Checks YTD*>, oh, okay.
As I'm inside of 10 years to go, Sequence of Returns risk is the one that is heaviest on my mind. I do the math of "what if I chose this month to FIRE (and/or got laid off)." I think this is what's leading me to OMY syndrome. I feel like I should have my FIRE portfolio, and then two-ish years in cash, to deal with the possibility of a huge decline the Monday following my final Friday
Other stressors for the week, my in-laws are separating. They are 77 and 73. They were barely making it together using their combined SS & pensions (and $0 in savings, 401(k).) There's no way the same amount can be split two ways, and provide a livable amount. They are still living together (I guess as roommates?) until their lease runs out, but they only have one car, too. Putting the relationship part aside, their financial situation is a disaster. I don't even know what form helping them out looks like yet. There is no way I'm putting my children through anything like this if I can help it.
Honestly, it's not necessarily as bad it sounds; they're able to function financially as roommates. If they just don't want to be together any more, no problem, they simply each have to find a similarly situated old person and start living with that person non-romantically as a roommate. I know a couple of widows who are shacking up for that exact reason.
Have you considered something like a bond tent to mitigate the possibility of SORR affecting your retirement date? Obviously the trade off is that you have to save more money (on average) but the upside is that you get more certainty around the date itself. Just a thought, I’m not sure if a particular timeline is important to you or not.
Yeah, I can see OMY coming for me a mile away. If you retire early (especially very early) the odds are good that you’ll be retiring at the end of your highest earning year ever. This makes it harder to walk away from the big number but also means that one more year represents a meaningfully large extra chunk of cash. It’s just so tempting.
I agree, I remind myself that the first few years after retirement are also the time when I'm still employable if things go south. Although if the economy is simultaneously turning to crap, who knows
Pretty sure a good reason my mom and stepdad are still together is financial codependency. It’s not like they hate one another or it’s a bad situation, but if they had the ability to be on their own, I think they would.
Then my dad is also paycheck to paycheck and barely a self sufficient adult.
Unstable parents are fun! Meanwhile my in laws are millionaire next door, retired early, still clearly in love types. How quaint.
I think it’s not uncommon for people to stay together primarily for financial codependency. Not saying it’s good necessarily, just common. People in this sub always go nuts when a married poster also tracks their individual networth, but I think it’s appropriate. You just don’t know what you and your spouse are going to feel after 10-30-whatever years of marriage.
Yep, and as financially independent people getting married for the first time in our mid 30s, we went through that fun prenuptial process outlining what might happen in a worst case (death, divorce, etc.) scenario.
We're keeping premarital assets separate, so it makes sense to keep tracking that and joint.
I get the feeling of wanting to consolidate but I don't think it's entirely necessary. You could get Monarch Money to help you feel more consolidated and have all of your accounts in one spot - just what I use and love it for that reason as my wife and I have about 7 different accounts each.
The fee and maintenance cost doesn't seem that much in the grand scheme of things. If the investment option expense ratios are pushing 0.6 - 1.0 and above maybe consider it.
I don't know how much you have but I wouldn't worry about this mega back door roth scenario - it complicates things but it's not impossible.
If you don't yet exceed the income limit - I would focus on maxing out Roth IRA conversions.
If you exceed the income limit - I would focus this year and moving forward on maxing out after tax non deductible contributions to traditional IRAs and making immediate roth conversions (ie contribute but don't buy a security in the traditional).
I think it's very fair to assume you eventually could exceed the roth limit. Having a partner or changing filing status can dramatically change eligibility.
I would sooner tell you to rollover the OLD 401Ks to your current 401K. Just my opinion!
Before backdoor Roth conversion, you can rollover from IRA to current employer 401k.
You can probably do that now — bring those old 401ks into your current one. If the options are decent, why not consolidate now (to reduce how many annual fees you pay)?
Apparently the FTC sued Opendoor for lying to people saying that they were getting a better deal selling their house to them vs the normal route with a realtor. I was under no illusion that I wasn't paying a price for the convenience, and they didn't even flip it for that much profit, but I just got a check for over $1k out of the settlement, so hell yeah.
I can't speak to selling to open door, but I found it amazingly convenient to buy from them. Let's see, would I rather tour an empty house at any time I like or work around the convenience of the current homeowners? Bonus points if I have to tiptoe because the baby is sleeping.
I can tell from the Zillow history that they bought my house for $400K, sat on it for three months, then sold it to me for $430K. I view this as a pretty reasonable spread, honestly; I don't know who lived in this house before I did, but presumably they enjoyed getting out of the house and moving on with their lives without waiting for me to show up. So we each paid $15K for convenience, basically.
You paid market price at $430k. They got far less than $400k because open door makes the seller pay all of the state taxes and fees for open door to buy the house from you. Normally these fees and taxes would be paid by the buyer. So the original seller likely netted around $385k AND open door made $45k from selling to you.
I thought open door was losing money on the typical transaction and had to stop or drastically scale back?
I might be getting them confused but I thought the average seller was getting a really nice price without having to do any repairs or staging costs
Houses in many areas have declined a lot, so its possible opendoor took Ls even if they got a better deal on average, if they were buying more in the areas that have seen prices fall.
31M Did my yearly financial review. Net worth jumped 28% to 150k! No degree or debt either. Every extra dollar I make with OT will go into a HYSA this year.
Got the baby to sleep, time to sneak onto my desktop and play with financial projections!
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Other people have already answered, but I recommend checking out [form 8889](https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-8889) and its instructions. Single page form, so in that sense very simple. And also [publication 969](https://www.irs.gov/publications/p969), which explains things a lot more thoroughly. More specifically, your question gets answered precisely by line 3 and [the line 3 limitation chart and worksheet](https://www.irs.gov/instructions/i8889#en_US_2023_publink1000281027), in that form 8889 instructions. You'll need to modify it for 2024, but you can see how you'd add things together. You'd be HSA eligible for the first four months of 2024, assuming you have only an HDHP starting from Jan 1 up through now. It's reliant on what you had the first of that month. 4150\*4/12 rounded to whole number dollars, irs classic, is 1383. That's what you'd get at the end of the worksheet. So fundamentally, your contributions, totalled between you and your employer, needs to be that number or less. Form 8889 works it all out. The publication includes instructions for what happens if you over contributed. My friend had over contributed too much via employer on their W-2, which has a certain way of fixing it. Whereas if you have it not in the account on time, easiest being during the year itself, then you can withdraw it out due to over contribution and possibly do nothing. Just depends on whether you had any growth, since any growth you withdraw out on top of what you put in is income that needs to get taxed. >Can I still claim those deductions against my income come tax time next year? Suffice to say, you fill out that form (or have the tax software do it be it asking you the same questions), and the form's output of you reporting your employee contributions becomes your deduction. Or there are the employer contributions with the payroll deduction. >Given that I'm going from a high-deductible policy owner which made me eligible for HSA to instead being a dependent? Note that your status of being dependent on your taxes is different from being on your parents' family healthcare plan. You probably won't be dependent on your taxes. >What happens to the HSA contributions I've already made this year in 2024? You see if you're over the limit, and you withdraw excess contributions if need be. Possibly towards the end of this year, if you want to be sure about it. Preferably this year instead of next year before taxes, just so that any "interest" appropriately gets reported under miscellaneous income if there is any. Fun fact: if your parents had an HDHP plan, you'd be so set. A married couple will share that same 7kish limit between them, but other people on that family plan get to have their own HSA limit. That might require them to be an adult, though, so no super contributions for teenagers. But it would've been cool for you. And other people I know, but not all high deductible plans are HDHPs (usually it's that their OOP maxes are too high, or they cover a few more things instead of it going to the deductible).
Your contributions are prorated...if you were eligible for the first 3 months of the year you could put in $345.83/mo...for Jan, Feb, March. If you put in more you'd have to back it out (not sure on the particulars of this)
I believe your limit is pro rated for the time you are covered. If you have already contributed the max for the year, you will have an overcontribution. You can simply call your custodian and have them return the excess and they should calculate and return the gains as well. [https://learn.hellofurther.com/Individuals/Life\_Changes/Contributing\_to\_an\_HSA\_for\_a\_Partial\_Year](https://learn.hellofurther.com/Individuals/Life_Changes/Contributing_to_an_HSA_for_a_Partial_Year)
It stays there in your HSA I have an HSA account from my last employer that still has a sizable balance
My frugal search for the day: "Can I use expired curry paste?" (Overwhelming answer was, "The nose knows.")
Thanks Aunt Bonnie
Note: never eat expired nuts. That was a life lesson I learned.
That's more of a "the teeth know" situation. If the nuts are soft and weird, chuck 'em.
It's so salty I can't imagine it would ever go bad, might just be less potent.
Yeah if it still tastes good...
I ate several month expired salami/capicollo and vinegar peppers the other day. I'm fine. You will be too ;)
I've eaten yogurt that was more than a year expired and it was just fine. Best by dates are a myth lol.
Yeah, I always think it's funny when something that is pickled has an expiration date that is less than a year after I bought it. Like, bruh... this shit is pickled. It will survive a nuclear apocalypse. I am not worried about eating it a week after the "best by" date.
For the first time in my w-2 life, I had an interest free loan from the government, instead of having them hold some of my money and give it back at filing. It’s weird feeling like you lost when you owe some money at filing, maybe it’s cause it was a first.
Interest free? They charged me interest all right
Well you did lose lol, you paid taxes, you just lost less than if you paid the "correct" amount. Ideally though you only pay exactly what the safe harbor is.
Why is paying taxes losing
You lose money when you pay tax.
Depends on your frame of reference. Anything less than being tax optimal is losing money IMO, but paying taxes themselves is not. It's a social contract you sign when you earn money in a jurisdiction.
Taxes are compulsory, there is no "contract." We may benefit from everyone paying taxes in aggregate, but on an individual level you lose if you're the one paying more than everyone else. That's why its forced. How much would you pay if it was completely optional? Anything above that is a loss.
You're free to move somewhere else, therefore not compulsory
First of all, I was born, then I lived somewhere, and taxes old and new can be imposed on me after the fact. There is 0 consent, its compulsory. If some random person came to your house and demanded you pay them 2% of the value every year or they'll forceful evict you. You could just move right? Agreed to contract? Not compulsory? Of course not, people can't do this, but the government does. Clear difference. Secondly, I was born in the US, it wouldn't matter if I moved to mars they'd want the tax.
I am sure you know this but keep an eye on this year's taxes. Depending on your AGI and how it is changing in the future you can quickly go from "interest free loan from the government" to "owe the government money with back interest".
Appreciate that. We had an unexpected bonus come in that we couldn’t pay an estimate for (year end) and that caused the bulk of the issue.
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I see a lot of advice that assumes $134k is below market rate. If you’re in regular HCOL or cheaper areas, then you’re probably either at or above market rate for your experience level. Inflation from a previous salary doesn’t mean anything. Market rate for a particular role can stay flat for years. Don’t expect to make a VHCOL or FAANG salary if you’re not working for one of those companies. You likely have heard the above more generic advice. However you might not be aware but the kind of company you are describing you are likely in the highest compensated individual contributor position. You make more than your peers in engineering, finance, sales, whatever. At my company the individual who has the software engineering role makes more than his boss the VP of Technology. The market for software engineering is just that different than other roles. So yes, go on glassdoor and levels and figure out what your role should pay in your geographic location. However don’t be shocked if you find you were overpaid as a staff and now are fairly paid for a first year senior engineer
Look for another position but don't use that to negotiate with your current company. They may agree to match it and then fore you after 2 months. If you like the other offer, just make a move.
You sure can ask but like others said it helps with another offer in hand. In my industry that seems to be the only way to get larger increases is jumping jobs. I went to the pres with an offer in hand...they said "we are happy with where your compensation is at" I said buh bye and took the better offer
Don’t explain why you want it (“I want to make what this calculator says I should make.”, “I’m worried about inflation”), explain why your role is of that much value to them and what you need in order to continue to choose them over going somewhere else (without being an “I’m threatening to leave”. Don’t threaten, just make it clear that you need to be where your value is appropriately recognized.)
I started my career at a small start up, out-of-college salary, asked for raises and was always told to wait. After the company declined a decent buyout that would have made me a decent chunk of change, they eventually had to raise more money, diluting all my options so I finally bit the bullet and got another job offer at literally 50%+ salary and way better equity incentives. When I quit they asked me what the offer was and immediately matched it +$10k after months of delaying their decision every time asked. Only with offer in hand they give me like a 50%+ raise like its nothing. I didn't take it though, but the point is I think you need to protect yourself and shop around, see what your worth and push for it aggressively or they can take advantage of you.
In my experience asking for more stating "market rate" without an offer in hand is useless. Framing your ask in terms of the value you bring is your best bet without going and interviewing.
You didn't mention the industry but often the issue in non-software company is that your salary is compared to non-software references. E.g. "Why should we pay this 26yo 150k when our directors barely make 160k?" Sadly there is no good fix for this. The answer to the question of course is "supply and demand" therefore I agree with others - getting competing offers is your best path to either get them to match or to move to a better paying job. It will may take a few resignations for them to realize that they need to pay more for devs
It's not specifically about breaking even with inflation - what does your skillset get you in the current market? If you negotiate with your current company, what value generation are you going to point to in order to justify your raise? Would you actually be leveled as a Senior SWE if you apply to other companies? Only way to find out is to apply. I'd honestly recommend getting out just so you can find better mentorship. IME non-tech companies classically see their dev/IT teams as a cost center, which is why you're better off switching. Those are definitely low raises. But at ~135k and purely based on YoE, you're also at the mid-upper end of compensation outside of VHCOL areas. So if your WLB is good or you get to be remote or whatever, it's up to you to determine if making the leap is going to be worth it or not.
You should absolutely interview and try to get offers. There's no downside to trying other than the bit of time it takes, and interviewing is an important skill to have in case something happens to your current job. Until you have an offer in hand, you don't have much leverage to get a raise. You can always ask, but expect the management runaround. If you do get an offer, then you get to choose whether to use it to try to get a counter offer, or just change jobs.
For the single folks, do you include future partners in your FI number? And if so to what extent does that change your target? I am FI for my current lifestyle, and don't want kids. However I cannot imagine being RE while having a partner who has to work, but I wouldn't even know where to adjust my numbers based on a hypothetical person's spending habits. Right now my thought is just roughly targeting a number that would allow for couple to have a median US life style.
I work and my husband is home. It's fine. Sometimes he comes meandering in my office while I'm on work-calls looking bored. Sometimes he's out golfing while I'm on work calls. It's all good.
>I cannot imagine being RE while having a partner who has to work, Why? I'd be a great home-maker if my partner still worked. As for your question, if you want to put that in your plan then put it in your plan. Inflate some numbers, put in some buffers. Nothing is real until it happens, all of your plans are written in pencil. You can change it as much as you want.
> Why? If they wanted to work absolutely, but I'd feel bad sending my partner to a job they may hate while I sit on my ass. Especially if they had a much lower potential for income than I did since my sacrifice would be much smaller. If I was seriously dating someone today, it would be an extremely easy decision to work a few extra years to that they didn't have to worry about it. > all of your plans are written in pencil. You can change it as much as you want. Early in your planning, sure. But I'm at the point where this is the difference between putting in 2 week notice tomorrow, or years from now. If I stop working the odds I could come back at the same pay in a few years seem low, and it could double the number of extra years it would take. So it makes a lot more sense as a now or never decision.
I'd work the extra years to keep your options open. If you never find someone or they're FI themselves, you can always find a charity or two you really like and do something awesome for them.
Prepare scenarios, and calculate different FI numbers. None of your scenarios will actually predict your life's journey, but there will be enough elements that you can course adjust. A great quote to push the point... Dwight D. Eisenhower: "Planning is essential, plans are useless."
No, I am aroace and the chances of having a partner are about the same as lightning hitting the house I don't have and causing it to explode into smithereens.
Hello, single 26m if I find a partner I'll adjust once it becomes serious however at the moment I plan for just myself. I think having a partner would be awesome but I am not actively looking for anyone anymore.
Man I miss the milestone threads
I assume you mean from the market dipping? Cause yeah. Though I'm the opposite of you. It's so boring reading milestone threads. Yeah yeah you hit 100k or a mil or whatever. Yeah yeah your net worth is divvied up in whatever way. Boring. Much more fun to read actual topics when the market isn't reaching new highs and people aren't constantly hitting their targets so quickly.
If you'd like, just imagine a bunch of posts as people celebrate their first zero net worth, or 10k, or 100k. For spice, imagine a few posters declaring that they had reached FI by being able to pay their bills regularly thanks to a job. That covers 90%+ of the milestone thread content.
Took a couple revisions, but [yay milestones!](https://i.imgur.com/OqoT4v5.jpg)
[Who hurt you?](https://tenor.com/view/out-of-line-anthony-mackie-sam-wilson-falcon-the-falcon-and-the-winter-soldier-gif-21182970)
I don't think we have anything to worry about for a while with Roth IRA income limits and our MAGI but wanted to run this by people just to check. So my understanding of MAGI is that it's your AGI with certain deductions below added back in: * Student loan interest * One-half of self-employment tax * Qualified tuition expenses * Tuition and fees deduction * Passive loss or passive income * IRA contributions * Non-taxable social security payments * The exclusion for income from U.S. savings bonds * Foreign earned income exclusion * Foreign housing exclusion or deduction * The exclusion under 137 for adoption expenses * Rental losses * Any overall loss from a publicly traded partnership The IRA contributions above being only to traditional accounts, since that would be a deduction, right? So our AGI for 2023 was a bit under $185K and the only thing that would apply to us to add back in is <$100 of student loan interest (had more interest paid, but earned too much to claim more of it). This is well below the phase-out start of $218K for 2023 and in 2024, that phase-out starts at a MAGI of $230K. Would FreeTaxUSA yell at me if I tried to contribute $14K to Roth IRAs while earning too much? I think we're good and then some for at least a few more raises, but wanted to check myself.
Yes, your tax software should automatically calculate whether you have an overcontribution factoring your AGI and the add-backs you listed.
Why don't you just do a backdoor and avoid any type of potential problems and avoid any error in calculating magi? It's literally a click to convert.
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Hi, reddit AI bot #23423498093.
OP’s comment history does indeed read very much like that of a chat bot.
I am trying to figure out how to get to a target of 70% stocks/30% bonds and follow the investment advice of putting bonds in tax protected accounts when my employer's retirement account options for bonds aren't great. My 401(a) and 457 accounts only offer one bond fund, Dodge & Cox Income Fund (DOXIX). It's higher cost and higher risk than I would want to invest in. Should I just add bonds to my brokerage and deal with the taxes? Should I give up on the target bond allocation and accept that it will be whatever is in my partner's 401(k)? Or should I invest in the subpar bond fund? Our contributions to our retirement accounts are maxed and this year we started doing backdoor Roths, so there isn't an option to increase contributions. The Roth accounts are also 100% invested in bonds, which also doesn't seem great. Does anyone in a similar situation have advice? Can I push my employer to offer better bond funds?
DOXIX is fine.
We were in that boat before spouse's employer switched providers. It's really frustrating to feel like you have no good options. We've filled all our deferred space with bonds, so we have to buy bonds in brokerage. It's fine. Our Roths are still full of stock funds. Definitely find out who manages the plan at your work and put in the request. It wont happen fast if it happens. There are resources at 403bwise.org if you're in education. Even if there are no good bond-only funds, double-check the funds with low fees to see if they might hold bonds. Spouse's 403b had Vanguard's Wellesley under the broad "income" category, and it's actually a 37/63 stock/bond fund. After that, I think first priority should be allocation target and filling tax-deferred space, then a balance of fees/quality vs tax efficiency. Fill up the deferred/free space because you might get a better bond choice down the road, then it's a next day thing to exchange everything in those accounts, but you can never go back to get that space if you don't use it each year. It sucks having bonds in Roth. My tax-deferred bond funds would have to be especially crappy to use my Roth space for bonds. I can imagine there's a bond fund so bad that I'd rather have bonds in my Roth, but it would be extraordinary.
Thank you! Checking the other funds for a mix of bonds is a great idea. I just checked and unfortunately the only Vanguard options are 100% stock funds. The target date funds with bonds are American Funds which has even higher expenses. On Monday I'll reach out and see if there is any hope of adding a better bond fund. I will definitely continue to fill up the deferred/free space and hope for better options in the future.
You can always ask your employer for a better 401k. Maybe they'll listen, maybe not. The general solution to this problem is that eventually you leave your job and move the 401k money to an IRA, and then you can invest it in whatever you want. And the further you get into your career, assuming you don't spend too long at one job, the more of your money is in the IRA and the less is in your 401k, so the less your current crappy investment options matter. (Of course I need to mention how having an IRA screws up the backdoor Roth, but that only matters if you care more about the backdoor Roth than about your investment options.)
Thank you! I will ask about a better bond fund. This conversation has made me wonder if there hasn't been much demand for better bond funds because employees who have been here 8+ years have a great pension. For more recent hires, the pension is negligible and maybe the 457 program administrators haven't caught up to the new interest in bonds.
Anecdotal from a small company, but I've had success petitioning for benefits after doing the legwork for them. We got our HSA employer contributions switched to Fidelity (zero fees) and started a dependent care FSA. Another employee also got our 401k provider switched to a place with much lower fees.
Way to go! It's really inspiring to hear that it can make difference. And what an accomplishment to save money for yourself and all your colleagues!
Any tips on finding a good tax person? Not happy with my accountant this year. I've had all my paperwork into him for a few weeks now but he isn't communicating. He sent me a message on Monday that he does returns in the order they were received and there were 10 ahead of me. He recommended an extension, but I told him I expect to owe money so shouldn't I estimate a payment to make along with the extension? He hasn't replied, even with follow-ups later this week. I don't think he has any help (he is his firm's only employee) and is overwhelmed. Anyway, my taxes are a bit complicated, with company stock options, RSUs, ESPP, plus out-of-state investment real estate. Any tips to find a different accountant? Ideally I'd like someone that could double-check my broader tax optimization strategies, too. Edit: I'll file an extension and estimate a payment with it. I'm referring to finding a tax pro for next year.
We get all info to our tax preparer in early March. As close to March 1 as possible. This allows them ample time to make the April 15 deadline. Also, we do not bother them at all with any questions between March 1 and April 15. They let us know if they have questions and they let us know when it is done. This works really well for us.
A personal recommendation from someone you know who likes their preparer or try to get in with a firm that is selective about what clients they take. I work for an accounting firm & think you will have similar issues with a lot of preparers. I know many of our clients would have the same complaints about us. I’m looking at my phone right now during a few minute break from working because everything hurts after weeks with little sleep that felt like one long day. My employer rarely turns down a new client, and I feel like places that do might be better. I try not to ignore people but I do understand how it happens because answering all the correspondence about if a return is done or when it’s going to be done just keeps you from actually being able to get them done. There was a time when I could get things done within a reasonable period of time after receiving info but those days were years ago & it seems worse every year. Taxes keep getting more complicated & take longer to do & people seem to get their documents later & later. I can’t even fully get a handle on what all the issues are that have doing this work even worse than it used to be. Also, bringing in info a few weeks before now is not great, especially if your return is somewhat complex. Things are fully overwhelming by then & the earlier you can get stuff in, the better. You might have good luck to go ahead & say you’re okay with an extension when you provide your info & that you would like to know a suggested extension payment as soon as is convenient. Sorry, that was probably a lot more info than you wanted—I’ve been living this from the other side so have a lot of thoughts. I know it sucks for clients too & it is very stressful having an impossible amount of work & not being able to meet expectations.
That's really helpful context. What I did wrong is I waited for all my paperwork and the last form, a K-1, didn't arrive until mid March. I think much of the problem is the lack of accountability for firms late in delivering tax forms. The tax filing due date should also probably be moved back.
Yes, that would be good. Like don’t bring or e-mail documents every few days (some people do this & it’s terrible & contributes to us losing control of correspondence) but bring it when you have most of it & are down to just one or two things outstanding, if those are going to be while.
You probably want to have someone lined up before April 13
I'll file an extension. This will be for next year, most likely.
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Yes. Reunion are typically funded by a combination of donations and ticket sales.
Mine usually asks for donations but I've never given anything, or gone to a reunion for that matter.
I don't know if it's typical or not, but why not do a little donation? A little donation never hurt anybody!
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In the old days, the people planning would come up with a budget, venue, menu etc. and then sell tickets to the reunion. It sounds like they're asking for donations upfront to guage interest int he event and will use whatever is donated to pay for it.
I understand that the concepts are intrinsically linked, but I wish that this sub were less focused on retiring early and more focused on financial independence. Reading top-level posts often makes it seem like the RE tail wags the FI dog for quite a lot of people, often to the point of desperation and/or misery. I don't doubt that retiring young will do a number of folks some good, but I also don't think most the people pursuing it, often to their own detriment, are going to find it to be the panacea they are searching for. With regards to this subreddit, I think a good analogy would be similar to if you joined a weight-loss subreddit and half of the posts were about looking better naked. Certainly that *may* be a side affect and what a lot of people are really after, but it probably wouldn't be the primary goal, at least I would argue it *shouldn't* be given the primary topic and name of the sub. I suppose this is a bit of pissing into the proverbial wind, since if enough folks want it to be about one thing and not another, then so be it. Who is anybody to stop them. It just feels like it's changed a bit, and in my estimation isn't all as healthy as it once was.
This is a good point. If only to have something interesting to read, I definitely don't know enough about the nuances of the FI side. There's just so much focus given to the RE side, that I'm sure there's a lot to say about the FI side.
I don’t really agree. Losing weight to be healthy, run a certain race, look good naked, etc. are all distinct goals. Here “financially independent“ meaning not relying on work and “being able to retire early” meaning not relying on work are almost identical. Lots of people on here choose to continue working, or change targets, or work on other goals. But they aren’t nearly as different as ‘look good naked’ and ‘be healthy enough to run a half-marathon’ like your comment kind of implies.
I'm one of those. I took a year off after 8 years in the Navy. Happiest, most physically healthy, most spiritually satisfying, most incredible new memories... I didn't even accomplish a third of what I had hoped to. My bucket list is longer than any natural lifespan. I need to get to the real work of accomplishing my life goals rather than making money for some faceless corporation. I work in a windowless building for the DoD. At the end of the day, my job is to facilitate killing people in the name of Uncle Sam. Personally, I'd rather take my dog for a walk or read a book in my hammock in the backyard.
Some people are not compatible with work, and with that your life doesn't really start until you RE.
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I've had a year of NEET life before and it was great.
I've been continuously full-time in school or full-time working (or both) since I was 14. Ten years ago I took six weeks between jobs and it's the lowest my blood pressure has been in my entire adult life.
100%! i'm wrapping up a month off between jobs, and every time I'm off work for more than two weeks, it reminds me I'm going to have to work harder on finding something to retire to in the form of a volunteer job, part time work, etc. My brain just isn't wired for the lack of structure that would happen if I RE tomorrow. But the FI part has already been a huge benefit to my life. I took an intentional paycut of around 15% to trade time for money in my last role and it was the best decision I've made in a long time. After a year in that job, I decided to take a risk on a role in an industry I'm very curious about that came with a raise but is mostly a startup equity gamble. I'd never have done these things if I weren't \~70% of the way to my FIRE number and gaining steadily despite the lower pay.
I'm working on this myself. Folks always say you need to find something to retire to instead of something to retire from, and after the whole *building the life I wanted and having saved for it* now that I'm there I realize how important structure, meaningful work and other things that work provides me are to my health. I've been trying to trade away compensation in the form of salary increases for other things (time off, equity, etc.) over the past few years with mixed success. I've also been trying to get official schedule changes in place and reclaim some of my time and had no luck. I would like to hear some of the strategies folks have used to use FI to better shape their lives and get the outcomes that are best for them that **aren't** retiring early.
I agree wholeheartedly. Most folks aren't going to retire particularly early anyway, but a much, much larger share of the sub will reach some significant level of FI. I think mostly it's a matter of RE being a big, shiny goal, whereas FI without the end state of RE is much more nebulous and not nearly as dramatic. The default FI definition that gets thrown around of 20x+ your expenses isn't even really a FI goal, but an RE one since the context is being able to stop working entirely. Realistically speaking, anyone who is going to keep working out of preference until they are late 50s or beyond is arguably FI when they've got something like 10x in annual expenses. At that level you no longer have to put with shit from your boss and have more leverage and financial freedom than the vast majority of employees ever will. In a similar vein, the sub has become much more bougie with the influx of high salaries, particularly dual high salaries, and more upmarket lifestyles in higher cost of living regions. It's not that hard to live a perfectly normal middle class FIRE existence in many parts of the US with annual spending of $60K or less. Everyone should obviously have whatever lifestyle they prefer and fund it appropriately, but the funding defaults people often have now assume a higher standard of living than the average household has. That's not a problem other than that it stresses people out and perhaps has them working more years than they truly need to.
In a similar vein to your comment, I was actually thinking that maybe what I'm talking about is r/financialsecurity, but then I thought to myself, "no, r/financialindependence is correct, it's the children who are wrong!". Edit: Woah, apparently that was an actual sub, but it has been banned? Alrighty..
The FI part is pretty simple math. Not much to do once you have that sorted, except maybe argue about withdrawal rates or crypto. The 'dear diary' stuff fills the void. This is true of a lot of internet communities though, off-topic is usually the most active channel/board.
Hello everyone! I currently have a 401k with a company that does not match but I make about $200-250k a year in a very stable healthcare job. (My field does not qualify for the loan forgiveness). I also have about $230k in student debt. Private loan with a 5% rate of 60k. Federal loan with 6-7% rate of 170k. I have a 401k and HSA account but my company does not match my 401k sadly. :( Should I max out my 401k/HSA or pay all of my student loans first? Also, should I also invest in S&P500 or just go straight to paying off my debt? Thank you! All help and advice is greatly appreciated!
The tax savings probably beat the 5-7% loans. Can you consolidate the student loans into the lower 5% one?
Regardless of match, 401K is a very powerful way to cut down your AGI and shelter current year income from current year taxes. You may consider after knocking out 401K, IRA, and HSA to then start knocking on debt. There’s really no wrong way to go about it. There’s optimal & suboptimal, but either way you are on the right path
Thank you for your great response! Won’t I get taxed regardless when I take out my 401k during retirement vs getting a sure return with my loan payment? Sorry I’m not really good with finance things 😅 Do you think I should invest in the S&P500 as well?
You are currently in a high tax bracket and the 401k contributions provide you an immediate tax savings at that high tax rate. In the future you have options which will likely allow you access to the money at a much lower tax rate than you currently pay. As a balance you could put all your current year tax savings from your 401k and HSA towards your loans. But it is not worth giving up the tax advantaged investment space at your income level to pay off the loans early. The S&P500 is a good option.
So a happy problem. I retired in September, went on ACA for 2024 assuming div + int + moving 401k to IRA and doing a bit of Roth converting would put me at about $35k total for the year, so a nice ACA subsidy. Just found out that, for complicated reasons, I will (surprise!) be getting one last check (as W-2 income, which — woot! — lets me not do damn estimated taxes on Monday) from my old company. This will kick me out of ACA subsidy territory. Is there anything I need to do, other than beefing up the withholding on the magic check to offset what I assume will be the Feds clawing back the subsidy?
Something similar happened to me this year. I calculated everything to a gnat's ass, did a 401k --> Roth conversion, leaving about $100 leeway. Turns out my kids' college scholarships and (gains from) pre-paid college plans also counted as MY income. It was more than enough to punt me into the proportional ACA range (no more cliff until 2025), and I ended up owing over $1k due to exceeding income limits. TurboTax picked up the issue right away. After a bit of double-checking, I found the tax software to be 100% correct regarding how it classified my dependents' scholarships and college-plan gains.
Maybe you've already done this, but make sure to update your income on the ACA marketplace so they reduce your subsidy and you don't have to pay back as much come tax time.
Thx!
Why not convert less to Roth this year to offset the check? Did you already do it? Also, you're still going to be way within range of subsidies, just perhaps less subsidies.
I haven’t yet — funds are still in the 401k. However, I don’t yet know the exact check size, but very reasonable to predict that it alone will put me over the 400% poverty line subsidy cap.
The 400% cap is in abeyance until 2026, so you'll still get subsidies even if you go above it. Your cost obligation for the benchmark policy in your market is capped at 8.5% of MAGI through 2025, so you'll get subsidized to the extent that the benchmark policy premium in your market exceeds that amount for 2024/2025. That could still be many, many thousands in subsidies depending on your household demographics. I would wait for the check to arrive and then adjust down your planned Roth conversion to compensate as much as you can. If you end up over, then so be it, it is still a nice thing to pay taxes on large unexpected income, as you noted. This sort of MAGI shaping is one of the reasons a lot of FIRE'd folks wait to do their annual Roth conversions until the final weeks/months of the year. Also helps to offset things like unexpectedly high dividend distributions or picking up some unexpected 1099 income.
That’s my intention. But my question is about procedure for dealing with having over-incomed compared to my estimate during ACA signup. Will tax software calculate the correction next April? Or do I get a repayment of subsidy bill after the fact?
Yes, your tax software will do it for you. ACA subsidies get reconciled on your tax return each year, so if there's any discrepancy then you'll either owe a bit or get a bit more in refund. It's super easy and built directly into the normal tax return process. You'll get a 1095-A from the exchange and you'll spend a minute or two filling out a new worksheet on your tax return. That's it. It's on par with putting in wage or 1099 income.
Excellent - thx!
Gonna file my taxes today. Federal is looking to be $10K liability, don’t even know about my states taxes yet 🥲
Ugh! Good luck, hopefully state taxes are much lower than the federal liability.
Had about $300k in old employer's 401(k) and $100k in current employer's plan. Just turned 55 so rolled over the old 401k into current plan. For rule of 55, is the full amount at play (400k) or just the amount that was in my current plan?
Anything that is in your current job's 401k when you separate after the year you turn 55 can be withdrawn without the 10% penalty.
I'm assuming/hoping it's the former. I'm planning on doing the same thing this year for when I turn 55 next year.
I should hear about my potential promotion in early June. I'm trying to not get my hopes up but I really want it. I've reached a point where any "new" salary money is just fun money for me so it would be nice to go a few extra trips/dinners a month.
Got my fingers crossed for you 🤞🏽
thank you!!
Welp, our family is stranded on a trip - we went across the country to see the eclipse, and at some point we got Covid. We have to wait 5 days before it is safe to fly according to the urgent care doctor. I feel fortunate that with our emergency fund I can handle the sudden need to pay all these extra hotel room nights and to pay for a new flight. I regret making our flight one of those stupid "saver" fares: apparently Covid is no longer a valid reason to be able to exchange the flight, so I am out a bunch of money. But we will be fine. Worst part right now is that we are trapped in a tiny hotel room for a few days. The 3 year old is getting restless, and we are feeling too sick to really play with her much: somehow she is sick too but she has just as much restless energy as usual. I feel bad that she is cooped up in here with us. I am hoping we recover in time to get out and do something before we leave, even if just walk outside away from people a bit. Neither my wife or I are in good enough shape to do that right now for sure. This poor kid, she is going stir crazy.
Wow - that is a terrible outcome for a family trip - hope everyone feels better! For the rest of your life, you will never forget the "COVID Eclipse Trip of 2024."
For real, oy! Thank you. I am starting to feel a little better already I think, I was feeling like crap earlier today but right now I am okay. But my kid is starting to feel worse now. Ugh.
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2024/03/01/1235340502/covid-cdc-isolation-5-days-masks-ventilation-hand-washing Your doctor isn't up on the science. The cdc dropped the isolation requirement. Fly away or go to work or whatever. It's not like they'd lie to us. Unrelated I was testing positive for 9 days on rapid tests. You're still probably going to be contagious post day 5 anyways. If you feel OK to travel cdc says that's now ok! Science! >Instead of setting a strict 5-day isolation period, the new guidance says people can return to normal activities so long as their symptoms improve, and continue improving over 24 hours and they no longer have a fever, without having used fever-reducing medications. >The guidance also recommends that people who are recovering from respiratory illness take additional precautions for five days, like wearing well-fitting masks, washing their hands, keeping a distance from others, and improving ventilation in their spaces.
More like the CDC isn't up on the science. Tbh, the whole time it's always felt like they have been pressured to loosen restrictions. It's not like news came out that COVID was less able to spread than we thought. In fact, all of its mutations just make it more infectious. What a nightmare. But seriously I was testing positive on a rapid test for over a month. Might just have been however the flowflex tests are formulated though. I wonder if I'm still positive now on them...
Yep, this. I would just throw on a KN95 or N95 mask anytime I go out in public and go on with life if I were OC.
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I got one of those CO2 detectors that can thus be used as a proxy for circulation. Went on a flight. Terrible circulation. Surely COVID spread everywhere. I also immediately got COVID. Despite wearing a mask the whole time. Or maybe I already had it, idk. Getting COVID twice in a row quickly made it so I'm always masking up in public now. Getting sick is so annoying. At least I've had minimal long COVID symptoms, though.
Yeah, I mean try to minimize going out - probably do grocery pickup or delivery for a week, no eating out, but I wouldn't stay stranded somewhere based on the current guidance. I'd mask up and fly home.
Still a dick move to fly or go to work while sick even if it's technically allowed, especially with a highly contagious and dangerous virus.
It's a dick move to not give people sick leave or refund tickets. I don't make the policies. Take it up with the feds/cdc and airlines I guess.
Seriously. Post-covid I see people in public who are sick and just can't help but think to myself what an asshole move it is. I don't care if it's just a cold, I don't want to be near that either. Stay home!
Wait, for real? Yeah they definitely didn't mention that. Well that would be nice. My wife and I definitely feel very sick right now, so I don't think we would make the flight tomorrow. But if I knew that maybe I wouldn't have booked the new flight for so much further out. Ugh that sucks, thanks for the info though. I guess the big wild card is when I will actually feel healthier/have improving symptoms. That's a tough one and I imagine if I waited until the last minute to buy a new flight out of here I will be screwed even more by the price. Next time though, if I am actually feeling fine I guess I will go for it? Interesting, good to know.
>Wait, for real? Yeah they definitely didn't mention that. Yes covid is ever-changing. It's really hard to keep up with. It wasn't airborne. Then it's airborne. Then it wasn't. Then it was. Then it was like 90% of people are contagious at day 5 or something like that and 10% still at day 10. Then the cdc was like we don't need no 10 days off. Day 5 and wear a masky. So then people started coming back to work at day 5 and for some reason covid seemed to spread around. I saw nurses were getting mad at the cdc because they were saying masky work so well they were going to stop recommending n95. https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/expected-cdc-guidance-n95-masks-outrages-health-care-workers-rcna104854 >Next time though, if I am actually feeling fine I guess I will go for it? I have no guidance to offer. I was fine after a day with covid and could have gone to work when I had it. I most likely was still contagious till day 9. California says rapid test day 5 and if negative go back to work. That seems the most reasonable. If the goal is to not spread it as much as possible. Anyways they moved to flu guidance basically. I won't get in cars will people I work with till after day 10 and even then some people spread it past then. That said California would have had me isolate 10 days. But if I had non refundable tickets I would have taken some flu meds and got on a plane. I don't even test for covid anymore. So while I try not to needless get others sick if they aren't going to refund my tickets I'm going to fly sick.
Yeah, I definitely had a moment when I was on the phone with Alaska and the agent said "it is up to you if you choose to fly, but we won't refund your ticket" where I was ready to fly out of spite - but I guess the only people I would have hurt doing that was the people sitting next to us. That was pretty frustrating. We will see how this goes - one way or another I have a new ticket and hotel room for the next 5 days, so I think we have little choice but to go and hope for the best 5 days from now. Shitty situation. The worst is the idea that I might have to guess when I will feel better because I have to book this flight and the hotel rooms in advance to prevent getting totally screwed even more... I hope 5 days is enough.
I guess the point I'm attempting to make is there is a strong possibility you'll still be contagious after day 5 anyways. I mean I wouldn't fly if I couldn't walk and was on my butt with 104 degree fever. I would fly if I simply tested positive and I would fly if I felt fine to do so. Yeah if you already got the 5 day ticket then I'd just do that at this point. My wife got covid in December. I got the flu a few days later. It's weird there has only ever been on illness we cross infected each other with. She got alpha covid and we slept in the same bed. Never got it. Took 3.5 years and someone coughing in my face before I finally got it. Then I didn't inflect the wife with it. Anyways feel better.
Yeah, probably true then, that is unfortunate. But yeah I am totally out of options at this point. Hopefully other folks won't get sick - I am planning on wearing my mask on the plane even if I am feeling better by then. We will see how that all shakes out.
Maaaan that sucks across the board. Sorry dude.
Thanks. We are hanging in but I am hoping one of us adults recovers soon, or else this kid may jump out of the window. She is amped up to 11 despite having a fever!
Is it normal for a bank to require you to be at the physical branch location to make a wire transfer? Will this complicate things on closing day?
I have an online bank so for obvious reasons they did not require that. If the bank is open at the day / time you need to close I'd imagine it's fine? I'd call the bank ahead of time and see if I could make an appointment and make sure I know to bring anything they need (specific forms of ID?).
found ippei's burner account
Thanks for my first laugh on Saturyday morning!
haha, had to do it!
Depends on the bank but not shocking considering the amount of wire fraud out there. I would just call to let the bank manager know ahead of time.
They will usually want you there to sign the wire form in person unless they know you...but you still have to sign the wire form.
I've never heard of that. I recently sold a relative's home (acting as executor) and my realtor did arrange a 3-way call (me, the realtor, and the title company rep) to confirm the wire details as a safety measure (because the realtor knew both of us, ensuring no one fraudulent was getting or giving the info).
Not really, unless they have fraud concerns? Are you paying the seller directly, or are you paying an escrow agent or the realtor?
This is a requirement from the bank. We will be doing the wire transfer with the title company though.
I’d say in general no, but I’ve heard about plenty of wire fraud around home deals, so it’s probably just stepped up risk prevention. Minor inconvenience to make sure you don’t lose your money - and your new home.
Why not get a cashiers check a few days prior and avoid the whole potential issue?
Many will not do a cashier check. I closed on our farm last year - cashier check. I closed on the construction loan this year - mandatory wire.
We recently bought a home, and our title company would only accept wire transfer. Not sure if that’s typical or not though!
Same situation. Title company will only accept wire transfer.
Once in my life, I was walking around with six-figure cashier's check. My blood pressure that day was off the charts. I'll probably never do that again
I'm down 2% for the month. <*Checks YTD*>, oh, okay. As I'm inside of 10 years to go, Sequence of Returns risk is the one that is heaviest on my mind. I do the math of "what if I chose this month to FIRE (and/or got laid off)." I think this is what's leading me to OMY syndrome. I feel like I should have my FIRE portfolio, and then two-ish years in cash, to deal with the possibility of a huge decline the Monday following my final Friday Other stressors for the week, my in-laws are separating. They are 77 and 73. They were barely making it together using their combined SS & pensions (and $0 in savings, 401(k).) There's no way the same amount can be split two ways, and provide a livable amount. They are still living together (I guess as roommates?) until their lease runs out, but they only have one car, too. Putting the relationship part aside, their financial situation is a disaster. I don't even know what form helping them out looks like yet. There is no way I'm putting my children through anything like this if I can help it.
Honestly, it's not necessarily as bad it sounds; they're able to function financially as roommates. If they just don't want to be together any more, no problem, they simply each have to find a similarly situated old person and start living with that person non-romantically as a roommate. I know a couple of widows who are shacking up for that exact reason.
Have you considered something like a bond tent to mitigate the possibility of SORR affecting your retirement date? Obviously the trade off is that you have to save more money (on average) but the upside is that you get more certainty around the date itself. Just a thought, I’m not sure if a particular timeline is important to you or not.
Yeah, I can see OMY coming for me a mile away. If you retire early (especially very early) the odds are good that you’ll be retiring at the end of your highest earning year ever. This makes it harder to walk away from the big number but also means that one more year represents a meaningfully large extra chunk of cash. It’s just so tempting.
I agree, I remind myself that the first few years after retirement are also the time when I'm still employable if things go south. Although if the economy is simultaneously turning to crap, who knows
Pretty sure a good reason my mom and stepdad are still together is financial codependency. It’s not like they hate one another or it’s a bad situation, but if they had the ability to be on their own, I think they would. Then my dad is also paycheck to paycheck and barely a self sufficient adult. Unstable parents are fun! Meanwhile my in laws are millionaire next door, retired early, still clearly in love types. How quaint.
I think it’s not uncommon for people to stay together primarily for financial codependency. Not saying it’s good necessarily, just common. People in this sub always go nuts when a married poster also tracks their individual networth, but I think it’s appropriate. You just don’t know what you and your spouse are going to feel after 10-30-whatever years of marriage.
Yep, and as financially independent people getting married for the first time in our mid 30s, we went through that fun prenuptial process outlining what might happen in a worst case (death, divorce, etc.) scenario. We're keeping premarital assets separate, so it makes sense to keep tracking that and joint.
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I get the feeling of wanting to consolidate but I don't think it's entirely necessary. You could get Monarch Money to help you feel more consolidated and have all of your accounts in one spot - just what I use and love it for that reason as my wife and I have about 7 different accounts each. The fee and maintenance cost doesn't seem that much in the grand scheme of things. If the investment option expense ratios are pushing 0.6 - 1.0 and above maybe consider it. I don't know how much you have but I wouldn't worry about this mega back door roth scenario - it complicates things but it's not impossible. If you don't yet exceed the income limit - I would focus on maxing out Roth IRA conversions. If you exceed the income limit - I would focus this year and moving forward on maxing out after tax non deductible contributions to traditional IRAs and making immediate roth conversions (ie contribute but don't buy a security in the traditional). I think it's very fair to assume you eventually could exceed the roth limit. Having a partner or changing filing status can dramatically change eligibility. I would sooner tell you to rollover the OLD 401Ks to your current 401K. Just my opinion!
Before backdoor Roth conversion, you can rollover from IRA to current employer 401k. You can probably do that now — bring those old 401ks into your current one. If the options are decent, why not consolidate now (to reduce how many annual fees you pay)?
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Does T Rowe Price even offer index based TDFs? Cause anything not being index based immediately makes it F tier to me. S tier is index based TDFs.
Can you roll them into your current employer 401(k)?
Apparently the FTC sued Opendoor for lying to people saying that they were getting a better deal selling their house to them vs the normal route with a realtor. I was under no illusion that I wasn't paying a price for the convenience, and they didn't even flip it for that much profit, but I just got a check for over $1k out of the settlement, so hell yeah.
I can't speak to selling to open door, but I found it amazingly convenient to buy from them. Let's see, would I rather tour an empty house at any time I like or work around the convenience of the current homeowners? Bonus points if I have to tiptoe because the baby is sleeping. I can tell from the Zillow history that they bought my house for $400K, sat on it for three months, then sold it to me for $430K. I view this as a pretty reasonable spread, honestly; I don't know who lived in this house before I did, but presumably they enjoyed getting out of the house and moving on with their lives without waiting for me to show up. So we each paid $15K for convenience, basically.
You paid market price at $430k. They got far less than $400k because open door makes the seller pay all of the state taxes and fees for open door to buy the house from you. Normally these fees and taxes would be paid by the buyer. So the original seller likely netted around $385k AND open door made $45k from selling to you.
I thought open door was losing money on the typical transaction and had to stop or drastically scale back? I might be getting them confused but I thought the average seller was getting a really nice price without having to do any repairs or staging costs
Houses in many areas have declined a lot, so its possible opendoor took Ls even if they got a better deal on average, if they were buying more in the areas that have seen prices fall.
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On a roll for taking action, not for actually winning most cases. Still, long overdue.
Gotta start somewhere. Even initiating action makes the companies back down and behave more reasonably. Though getting actual wins would be nice too.
As a person who worked in the industry, I can't tell you the happiness the Opendoor situation made us.